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User blog:RueOfZT/Epic (115: A Grave Campaign)
Disclaimer Mac has shared with me the responsibility to write and publish episodes of Epic with his creative guidance. For the best visual experience, it is recommended you use a recent version of your computer’s internet browser. Cat “I can’t believe it,” Rad whined. “Because of your inexperience, I have to deal with being on Team Noob!” I turned to him with a face of disbelief. “Blame Mac for the name, not me for being a new recruit!” We were knelt on top of a hill, peering down upon a building of moderate size in the distance. Contrasting from the city, there was no dark and smoky pollution blanketing the atmosphere; the sky radiated a dark pink, almost turning black, as we had waited until nightfall to sneak into the base. “Now?” I asked. “Now,” Rad replied. We walked down the hill, the pure grass making itself evident on the bottom of my shoes. I suddenly considered how different the planet felt before Ssenkrad’s presence. Certainly, the air had been cleaner. It was meant to be a secret, though not one well kept, that Ssenkrad had spread molecular viruses throughout the air of the cities. The effects were frightening: people stayed awake longer, and day by day, they became robbed of all common sense and logical thinking. The average person always ended up doing Ssenkrad’s dirty work, directly or indirectly, whether by successful manipulation of their mind or the fact that there was no other option. We had reached the front of the building, but were not intending on using the entrance. Rad looked at me expectantly for a few seconds. “What?” I whispered, not understanding his silent message. “See if you can find another way in,” he commanded, “like a vent or something.” “Why do I have to do everything?” “Relax,” he replied. “I’ll be watching the doors to make sure no one comes out and sees us.” I glared at him. “By the time you see them, they’ll see you, and our cover will be blown.” Rad gave a confident laugh. “You’d be surprised at how illusive I can be.” “If you say so,” I responded, walking around the corner of the building so that I was at its side. I looked up to see vents on the wall immediately, but they were inaccessible. I tried the back of the building, which featured a gated parking lot. I pulled on the gate. There was no easy access: it was locked. Frustrated, I climbed the gate and dropped inside, my hands landing on the hard asphalt. I made a noise in pain. My hands had already begun to burn. After standing back up and starting my search for a discreet way inside, Rad’s voice came in through my earpiece in a hushed alertness. “There’s someone approaching the front doors. I’m hiding now. Where are you?” “The back parking lot,” I replied. “Had to climb over the gate and the ground here’s no cushion.” “What, you can’t take a few scrapes?” “Don’t you remember what’s in the air? Any injury is vulnerable to infection, no matter how minor it is. You know that.” There came no reply for about two minutes, then Rad’s voice returned: “Sorry, that guy was way too close. Anyway, we’re not really in the city anymore. Infection isn’t gonna pose nearly as much of a threat here. Did you find another entrance yet?” When I told him I didn’t, I could hear him growing impatient. “You need to hurry up,” he said. “I think some more people are coming out.” “Did they see you?” “I don’t think so. Their paths look coordinated. It’s probably a routine patrol.” After another few moments of no useful discovery, I finally found a closed manhole in an area almost diagonally across from the base’s back entrance, in a patch of thick grass instead of the concrete of the parking lot. “Rad,” I announced, “I’ve found our way in.” “What is it?” Rad hissed. I sensed his voice becoming even quieter than before; it was then almost inaudible. “I’m going in through the sewers.” Not waiting for a response, I moved the cover to the sewers aside and climbed down the ladder beneath, my palms suffering with each hold. Placing the cover back in its original position above me, my nostrils were immediately assaulted by a strange odor. It was not the smell of sewage; in fact, I had never smelled anything like it before. When I reached the bottom and turned to face the other direction, I was stunned. The canals which would usually be filled with waste were instead containing a radiant liquid of translucent blue. Its odor was now so abysmal that I had to promptly cover my nose and mouth with my shirt, and the minor scrapes on my hands began to throb. I walked upon the sidelines of the stream, wondering what the liquid could be and attempting to capture its details for a future discussion with the group. I held down the button on my earpiece. “Rad.” There came no reply. I tried again. “Rad, you there?” Within fifteen minutes of walking and turning corners, I had reached another ladder. Pleased with the relative linearity of the sewers, I gripped the first rung. The pain in my hand was explosive, and I quickly released the bar, feeling suddenly dazed. I took a moment to sit down and relax. My thoughts drifted. I wondered whether or not we actually had a chance at defeating Ssenkrad. I also wondered exactly why we were so determined to stop him. The beauty of nature which I had thought of while walking down the hill was completely irrelevant now; Ssenkrad had seized power so easily, it was most likely fated to happen. He had also brought forth change, and change was a quality most needed. People were undoubtedly more productive than they were before his conquering. Everyone had a place to be, a job to do, a designated position: a purpose. I found myself shaking my head, afraid. These thoughts were cowardly. I peered at my hands, and it was what I had feared: the injuries were a mixture of deep pink and green, swollen and riddled with pus. I was infected. In a state of panic, I hastily climbed up the ladder, disregarding the pain that came with each grab of the rungs. There was no time to waste. At the top, I pushed the cover aside and discovered myself to be in one of the base’s hallways. Excited that I had gained entry, I once again attempted a connection to Rad. “I’ve made it in,” I reported. I never received any type of reply or reaction, but it didn’t matter; I was already sprinting down the hallway toward a staircase. There was no one around. I could make it without being detected… or so I thought. “Excuse me,” came a voice from the staircase. Before I could reach it, a somewhat tall man equipped with a gas mask had walked down from the floor above and extended his palm, signaling for me to stop. I immediately came to a standstill. “You need to calm down,” said the man, fiddling with his lab coat. “Ssenkrad doesn’t need the sample delivered just yet. Good thing, too, because you seem to have forgotten one of these.” He pointed at his gas mask. “I guess I can’t blame you, since you’re so young. Ssenkrad knows what he’s doing by having you all work for him early. It’s time you get some experience. You don’t even have your uniform on.” Hiding my disgust at his words, I nodded. The man laughed. “Seriously, kid. Protect your face. If you don’t die from smelling the sample, Ssenkrad will execute you for your incompetence and disregard for safety.” With that, he walked back up the stairs, shaking his head in apparent amusement. I couldn’t believe my luck. By the obliviousness of the workers, I was in no serious danger. There was no need for stealth at all. I followed the man up the stairs to where the laboratories were. “Do you know anything about the EMP machine?” I asked him. “I sure do,” he replied, “but what do you need with the information? Stick to your job, kid.” I feigned offense. “You’re going to berate me for being interested in Ssenkrad’s methods?” The man suddenly froze for a moment, then turned around and faced me. “Alright, alright,” he said fearfully. “There are documents in the room where they’re studying the machine’s potential uses. I’ll take you there, but after that, you really should get back to whatever you were doing before. We could both lose our jobs here if we do too much sightseeing.” The man lead me to a room at the very end of one crowded hallway. I took notice that everyone in the building was wearing gas masks. The scientists outside the rooms paid no attention to me; indeed, there were multiple children working here as well. Among the many people roaming the floor was a unique figure who was completely cloaked in black, to the point where even its head was not visible. Its hands, which were the only parts I could see, did not appear to be of a usual color. “Who’s that?” I asked, pointing to this figure. The man turned to look where I was pointing. “Who?” I turned to face him. “The one with the cloak.” The man gave a confused expression. “Cloak?” He seemed to be genuinely unaware as to who I was talking about. When I looked for the figure to point at it again, it had already disappeared. I dismissed the topic and followed him inside the room, where every scientist within turned to look at me at once. “Where’s this kid’s gas mask, David?” asked one. The man looked down at me. “I was wondering that myself.” He turned to face one of his peers. “Ron, get him one, will you?” The scientist he was talking to opened a drawer in front of him, took out a gas mask, and placed it on me. “You’re gonna need it. It was pretty stupid of you to go walking around here without one in the first place. Ssenkrad wanted us to do a test run today.” “A test run?” I repeated. “Don’t worry,” the scientist apparently named Ron said. “Just a short burst of electromagnetic energy. This’ll be our second one today. The burst will scatter our mind-toxins through the air until we’ve hit every last person who thinks they can oppose Ssenkrad.” I looked at my infected hand, then back at the scientists. Using the distortion of my gas mask, I suddenly took notice everyone in the room all had similar injuries: one rather small spot of pus and blood was revealed on David’s arm, only centimeters in front of where the fabric of his lab coat ended, and the back of Ron’s neck was riddled with swollen skin. I suddenly realized why no one had brought up my infection in a conversation, and why everyone in the building assumed I was one of them. I was becoming one of them. A familiar voice came from behind us. “The test run’s off, guys.” We all turned around to look at the one behind the open doorway. Rad, who had donned a gas mask, stood with his hands in his pockets. “Really?” the scientist apparently named Ron said flatly. “Ssenkrad was very enthusiastic about this series of tests, and so am I.” “I’m just as disappointed as you are,” replied Rad, “but Ssenkrad wants to move the machine into a more secret place. He was worried the electromagnetic energy would be detected by the enemy.” “And why exactly should we trust your word?” David asked. “Show us your allegiance sign.” A few seconds of uneasy silence filled the room. Rad glanced at me, and I could sense his confusion. Without proper thought, I walked to his side. “He’s with me,” I declared, pointing to my infection. “There was no need for the mind-toxins. He was easily persuaded into joining the cause.” The scientists in the room looked at each other. A few of them nodded slowly, and they collectively left the room. Immediately, Rad and I began rummaging through the drawers. “You mind telling me what that was about?” Rad muttered. “There’s really no time to explain,” I replied quickly, grabbing a stapled series of documents and shutting the drawer. “We need to get out of here.” We walked with haste down the hallways, attempting to look inconspicuous. He turned his head. “I see you beat me to the disguises.” “It was practically given to me,” I laughed. “Looks like you ended up being the one who surprised me,” Rad said, chuckling. “Good job, recruit.” I knew he couldn’t see it because of my gas mask, but because of those words, I was beaming from ear to ear. Edgar “Anything interesting yet?” I yawned. We had made it to the ruins, which were mostly devoid of color, decoration, and any complex architecture. I would have fallen asleep along the way if Eva hadn’t shaken me every time my eyes closed for more than two seconds. Eva, who was now kneeling to dig through some rubble in the corner of the gray room we found ourselves in, stopped to turn her head and glare at me. “You mind actually helping me look?” Her eyes met the rubble. “I’ve been sensing the energy since before we even got to the entrance. I just don’t know where it’s coming from.” “Aww, what happened?” I scoffed. “I thought you were supposed to be the all-knowing one. I guarantee there’s nothing in that pile of stones.” “I think you’ve forgotten that I’m more precise with finding the sources of energy than you are. Where do you think it’s coming from, Edgar?” “Well,” I replied, “I know it’s in this room.” “And that’s the extent of it,” Eva declared. “My senses are leading me to this pile of stones, and so what we are looking for will be in here.” She stated it so simply and pretentiously that I gave her a jolt of electrical psychic power. She temporarily paralyzed me with her own power in response. When my mind had lost its numbness from the shock, I could hear 13, who had apparently been sitting in the corner of the room enjoying our quarrel, saying the words “see something interesting”. As if on cue, Eva had retrieved from the rubble a large and somewhat eroded tablet of stone. The three of us stood there, intrigued, staring at it. There seemed to be text carved into it, although it was mostly illegible. I turned to look at Eva, who apparently didn’t know what to make of it. “What do you think it is?” I asked. Before she could open her mouth to reply, a chilling voice emanated from behind us. “…grave…” All three of us turned around in a startled reaction. The way we had come in through, at the back of the room, was now obstructed by a figure almost completely cloaked in black, with its only revealing feature its discolored hands, which appeared to be decaying into a hopeless mixture of blood-red and pale. Eva held a button on her earpiece. “This is Eva. We’ve got the item, but there’s trouble.” She released the button as the figure stood motionless. There was no reply. She tried again: “Guys, did you hear me? We have the item but there’s a potential threat blocking the entrance. Danger scale level looks to be a six or seven. No other detected threats in the area. Do you copy?” Once again, there was nothing but silence. Suddenly, the figure thrust its right arm out so that the palm was facing us. A magnificent burst of red light protruded from the hand, and everything went dark. The first thing I saw when I regained consciousness was Eva lying down beside me, the tablet we’d retrieved still in her hands. She appeared to be drained of almost all life: her eyes were closed, and when I frantically checked her pulse, it was abnormally slow. Warm injuries were featured on her face. Getting up, I discovered we weren’t in the ruins anymore, but rather just outside of them. The cloaked figure’s body was also lying on the ground nearby, with 13 beside it, looking at me intently and mouthing the words “it’s dead”. I looked at Eva’s body, moved by the implications, before I pocketed the tablet, picked her up, and started to run. Rue We may have had the coolest team name, but Natalie’s attitude had probably made our mission the most unbearable out of the three. While traveling to the lab, she relentlessly mocked our appearance and Mac’s leadership. Each time she did so, I turned to look at Mac’s face to see if he had any amount of regret for placing her on our team: there never was any, as I think he was just too attracted to her to get offended. “You pathetic dweebs should’ve been on Team Noob,” she barked. “I don’t even need a team. I can take care of myself just fine.” I rolled my eyes. “Can you at least try to act like a respectable captain? I wouldn’t care if you took out Ssenkrad’s entire army with your bare hands—” “Yes, you would,” Mac interrupted. “Alright,” I said, “bad way of phrasing it, because that would actually be amazing. What I’m trying to say is that you leave much to be desired when it comes to demeanor, Natalie.” Her response to this was a simple and blunt “bite me”. “So this is the base, huh?” I asked as we approached a tall, bright building. “It kind of looks like a hospital.” “That’s because it was one at one point,” Natalie explained, “but not a normal one, which is why it looks kind of odd. I did some research on the area and this used to be some kind of special hospital that most people in the area were afraid of.” “Any idea why?” “Not an exact one, but there were rumors spread about some pretty disturbing experiments taking place in the underground sectors. That’s all I know. Now please stop talking.” The sliding door acting as the entrance to the base slid open automatically as we drew nearer, and Natalie walked in without hesitation. She turned back to look at Mac and I, who were frozen in thought behind the area where the doors made way. “Are you morons coming or what?” “As captain, I feel we should be a bit more cautious with how we do this mission,” Mac explained. “And as a captain myself,” Natalie replied, “I’d prefer it if you two hurry up so we can get the mission over and done with.” She turned back around and advanced further inside. My eyes were set coldly on Mac. “What do you see in her?” Mac began to jog inside, with me following behind him. “Wait, Natalie!” he pleaded. It was in vain; she had already disappeared amongst the unfolding labyrinth of hallways. From the start, left, right, and forward were all possible directions she could have taken, and those paths appeared to branch off into even more. He immediately held the transmission button on his earpiece. “Natalie, you report in right now!” After several seconds of no word, a distorted voice suddenly emerged through our earpieces. Mac and I gave each other a mutual look of confusion. “That didn’t sound like anybody we know,” I said, my heart turning cold with fear. “Did you hear what it said?” Mac asked. “No. Did you?” “I think I heard the word ‘grave’.” “‘Grave’?” He nodded. I promptly held down the transmission button on my earpiece. “Hello? Who’s there?” After a few minutes of no result, with me repeating the process periodically, Mac seemed to have jolted. “We’ll deal with that later. We need to find Natalie.” We began traversing the hallway leading left, which led to the A100 rooms. There were multiple doors on either side, which the two of us agreed to check by sending one of us to the door on the left wall and one of us to the door on the right wall, then opening the doors and scouting the respective rooms at the same time. They all had the layout of a standard hospital room, and most of them were empty. The few that had things remaining in them didn’t contain anything of interest and were merely petty objects such as forgotten pencils or cups. The sole exception was Room A114, six doors preceding the end of the hallway. As if guided by some unseen force, I automatically approached one of the bedside drawers and opened it to reveal a journal inside. It was presumably a log kept by one of the patients, directed towards apparently no one in particular. Slightly interested in what I might find, I flipped through its pages to find it was a series of ramblings requesting amnesty from someone for not being “the one”. Dried splashes of water, possibly from tears, had marked several of the pages, and as the journal progressed, the handwriting became more and more difficult to read. The only parts not asking for forgiveness were the parts mentioning “the other realm”. As I witnessed, in the form of text, an unknown person’s descent into madness and defeat, I slowly became overtaken by discomfort and a lack of ease. In a motion as automatic as my entrance, I walked into the room’s bathroom stall, aiming to calm myself in the mirror. As I looked forward at the mirror ahead and blinked, there appeared the reflection of a dark, cloaked figure looming over me. I screamed, but no sound escaped from me. I was too gripped by dread to move. An eerie voice resonated throughout my head. “…they were not the ones…” It was the same voice I had heard through the earpiece, the same voice who had said— I blinked again, and the figure was no longer there. I could move again. I rushed out of the room immediately and slammed the door behind me, finding myself back in the hallway. Mac’s voice faded in. “Rue! Over here!” He was standing back at the entrance, waving to me with one hand and pointing left with the other. He lead me across the middle hallway, then took a right at the very end, revealing the elevators. We entered one and pressed the button for the underground sectors before its doors closed and it dropped us beneath the surface. When the elevator doors opened, it presented to us a gigantic laboratory, albeit one with the lights dimmed so as to barely allow sight. We stood in awe as a low mechanical buzzing dominated the atmosphere. From the sides of the room hung containers like that of open coffins, each with a lifeless, decaying body within them. In the center of the room was a large, cylindrical machine, and in front of it stood Natalie. “Didn’t you hear me calling for you over the earpiece?!” Mac shouted as he walked toward the machine. “No,” she replied. I was the last to approach the machine, but the first to inquire about the restrained bodies on the walls. “What are they for?” “How should I know?” Natalie snapped. “We need to look for something that looks like it could help us. Don’t touch anything else.” She walked deeper into the room where the lights couldn’t reach her. “What a pleasant individual,” I said flatly. “I’m glad you agree,” Mac replied with a smile, apparently failing to capture my sarcasm. He began thoroughly examining the large machine. “If there are corpses on the walls and a giant machine in the center, maybe this was a failed experiment on immortality.” I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He walked slowly around the machine when he suddenly stopped in his place. “There’s a button here to start the thing. We can figure out exactly what it does.” Before I could voice my opinion, he had already pressed the button. A loud series of alarms filled the laboratory, combined with the groans and hisses of the grotesque bodies on the walls, which had sprung to life and were beginning to close in on us. Natalie emerged, sprinting from the darkness and holding a small tube of liquid in her hand. “I’ll chew you guys out for that later,” she grunted, pulling our arms toward the elevator. “We need to get out of here. I already have what we need, anyway.” She released our arms quite forcefully once we were in the elevator, then pressed the button to return to the main floor. One of the bodies was walking towards us. The doors had not yet closed. It was going to corner us. There was a terrible scream, but not one from any of our mouths. The elevator doors had slammed together right on the body’s outstretched arm, effectively chopping it completely off. A small stream of blood trickled across the floor of the elevator as we ascended. “Well, thanks for doing absolutely nothing to help the mission, guys,” Natalie said, punching Mac and I in the arms. “You two really are idiots.” “Just remember why we’re even here in the first place,” I countered. “Mac commanded it.” “Okay, then that leaves you. What exactly have you done?” I looked at the arm which lie on the floor. “I discovered that they weren’t the ones.” Category:Blog posts